Raw sewage continues to be discharged into Lough Foyle at Moville every day: EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has listed the Inishowen town among 11 locations where untreated effluent was being discharging raw sewage in mid-2026.

Falcarragh was also among the locales flagged by the EPA in its annual urban wastewater report.

Moville is the only large urban area with no wastewater treatment, the EPA have reported.

In 2025 wastewater treatment at Moville did not meet the mandatory standards set out in the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive.

According to the EPA Uisce Éireann has indicated works to redress these issues could be completed in 2030.

Elsewhere, the findings were more positive.

Buncrana was removed from the priority areas list following an upgrade of the wastewater collecting system in 2025 to reduce the risk of sewage overflows affecting nearby Lady’s Bay, the report advises.

"Bathing water quality at Lady’s Bay was classified as poor for the years 2021 to 2024 but improved to sufficient in 2025,” the EPA states.

Equally a new treatment plant for Rathmullan, Ramelton and Milford is now operational meaning raw sewage is no longer discharged without treatment into the Swilly as had been the case for years.

The EPA found that further to the west there was an incident in 2025 that saw millions of litres of raw sewage discharged into water ways.

“Delays in responding to equipment failures have, in some cases, resulted in untreated sewage being discharged to the environment over extended periods.

"For example, more than 9 million litres of untreated sewage were discharged from Ballybofey-Stranorlar, Co. Donegal, over a six-day period in 2025 due to an equipment breakdown that Uisce Éireann failed to respond to promptly,” the EPA notes.

The agency also emphasises that wastewater treatment must be improved at Bridgend and Burnfoot to prevent wastewater discharges from adversely impacting rivers, estuaries, lakes and coastal waters.

However, improvements have ‘not yet started’ and are ‘not currently scheduled for completion before 2030’.

Pat Byrne, Director of the EPA’s Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring said: "Investment in new treatment plants is helping to protect the environment and delivering benefits for local communities, such as in Ramelton, Rathmullan and Milford in Co. Donegal.

"However, EPA inspections continue to identify poor operational practices and inadequate maintenance of wastewater infrastructure, resulting in wastewater being discharged without proper treatment and adversely impacting water quality. Many of these failures could and should have been prevented, and Uisce Éireann must take immediate and effective action to address these failings."

The EPA identified 72 priority areas where action is most urgently needed to prevent pollution and protect the environment.

These included 13 towns and cities – Moville among them – that failed to meet mandatory European-wide wastewater treatment standards introduced more than thirty years ago.

Noel Byrne, EPA Programme Manager, said: "Progress by Uisce Éireann in delivering works at many EPA priority areas remains too slow, with around 60% of these areas still not started. This is prolonging impacts on the environment. Uisce Éireann must accelerate the delivery of these essential improvements."